The Warrior Mentality

[GeoffWilliams]

I really liked reading the article. Great insight into the mind of clearly a very mentally tough player. I think anyone can take a lot from the article. Even a great disruptor has to have a warriors mindset. However one chooses to play in order to maintain a high level the mindset must be there. An unrelenting burning desire to impose your game on your opponent is what it's all about. Nadal imposes his game on federer by forcing longer more physical points by taking away his opportunity to attack. Federer imposes his game on djokovic by disrupting his patterns with big forehands, although it's not always enough. The best players of all time have been able to impose their game on their opponent with whichever style they happen to play with.

Wow. Great post. Listen to this guy. Those are the kind of insights that make this site worthwhile.

To give you an idea of my mind set, I was working on a UC berk. job, moving the basketball players shower room when harmon gym was being renovated, and, I broke my wrist, with a hole hawg drill, caught on a 4" round circle saw drill hole, a huge amount of torque. I could not leave the site and go to a doc, so I fashioned a metal splint: aluminum door threshold bar, bent it to fit my hand/wrist, lined it with foam, and cast it after setting the wrist myself, and cut it in half, but taped during the day so I could work with it set, but remove it once home. ONce home, I removed it nightly, and ran a large high speed heated Panasonic Panabrator model vibrator horizontally back and forth, and back and forth, across the break, rivaling gout for pain. The pain of a vibrated bone break puts many into shock instantly.
The idea was to speed up healing, by speeding up the vibratory rate of the area, and increase blood flow. It healed without any side affect pain, in three weeks which would normally stay cast for six weeks in plaster but the removable cast allowed for the warrior mentality to adapt. I covered the cast during meetings with a rain jacket, as it was the rainy season, and once I sold bids, worked with the cast visible, while clients said,
"Wow. I didn't see that cast during the estimate!" One of ten broken bones in a dangerous job and dangerous hobbies. But it illustrates the out of the box thinking a warrior has to have to win against all odds and all comers and all breaks. To prove it was healed completely, the day I removed it, went out in a rainy day, hit with Dr. Dave Weiland on the uc berkeley campus, and slipped, fell right on the wrist in the rain, and it was fine.

[ghl312]

Wow. Great post. Listen to this guy. Those are the kind of insights that make this site worthwhile.

Thanks for the positive feedback.

I can't say enough how much I appreciate that mindset. If only the juniors I coach could have half that resilience. Still trying to find the best ways to cultivate toughness like that. Would love to see more articles on coaching and developing from a mental perspective.

[GeoffWilliams]

Toughness warrior mind set comes from a childhood of deprivation, or of the large need to prove yourself better than another/and or/parent's ideas of who/what/how/why you should be. Warrior athletes and sports are filled with the ghetto kids of the world, the deprived eastern/serbia/russian/blocks of people who know the truth: to win the battles ahead, you must starve/suffer/train/through awful tough practices, before fighting, and eat after killing your enemy. I went to a mainly black school system in Richmond, ca., yet without any speed held many of the all time distance records: mile, two mile, due to the ability to suffer a huge amount of pain for a longer amount of time than my faster team mates: with no coaching, no mentor, no equipment, no track, just attack dogs to dodge in the streets of Richmond: Rottweilers, Dobermans, Shepherds, no pit bulls back then at all. Football, boxing, futbol, mma, all are predominantly filled with warrior mind set types. Those who not only know how hard they have to work, but do it for the pleasure of the future kill; and to avoid being killed at all costs. Make your first serve at all cost. Make your return at all costs. Make no unforced errors at crucial moments. The mental mind set is all important. It's why Nadal has a winning record against all the top 30 players in the entire world. He has the most tough, dominant warrior like mentality.

Although tennis has a delicate side to it, which is strange when balancing the mind. The soft hitting disruptors stay with that side predominantly, and never hit hard nor learn to. The biggest current blaster with the softest touch: Jerzy Janowiz. He can win Wimbledon if his mind were not pout oriented. Federer's ability to balance hard and soft along with a tough mind, are more relevant to his success than his technique or his equipment. I'd like to write a piece about the deprivation/causality of the warrior mind set.

There are no athletes in fox holes and everyone is a vegetarian between meals. Ha, ha. Victory only exists out of the great desire of the player to gain advantage at the expense of the beaten: whether the beaten is his opponent, or himself. The only way to gain advantage over yourself is to improve: mind set, strokes, tech., equipment, diet/practice/tactics/training/partners/balance/foot work/unit turning/split stepping/jamming shots/stamina/energy/kinetic path way/outlook upon loss/or victory.

[klacr]

There is a warrior mindset in a disrupting game. There is a disruptor mindset in a warrior game.

There has to be. Good work Geoff. Take care of that gout.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Boca Raton

[GeoffWilliams]

True. But as an MMA fighter, you have more to add than that.

[gzhpcu]

Seems to me like the clash of two mindsets, though I think disruptor is the wrong term. "Pusher" fits the bill better.

Disrupting can fit both types. The warrior disruptor does not let his opponent find his rhythm by not only bashing full power, but mixing up hard shots with drop shots, serving and volleying now and then.

The pusher disrupts in a different fashion: constantly giving slow shots back and trying not to make any mistake. Endlessly long points.


Warrior: I want to win, I will blow my opponent off the court.

Pusher: I do not want to lose, I will get everything back and throw junk at my opponent until he makes a mistake.

Offense versus Defense. Make points vs don't make mistakes.

All the great champions are warriors. The pushers have success at the club level.

[lobndropshot]

This whole idea of kill or be killed in sports is an idea that just needs to go away (I highly doubt it is truly a part of our DNA, otherwise there would not be 7 billion people in this world). Here is why. If I approach every match like it is life or death and I lose I feel like death. If I win so what I just live and living is a very low standard of success. Therefore, there is automatically a smaller payoff for winning in comparison to losing, so what then is stopping me from just quitting and taking up fishing or gardening. Also, not to mention what if I get hurt in a match and limp my way to a win? Well I win but I have caused more damage to my injury but at least I am not “dead.” Well I am not dead but now I have to go through my week with a stupid limp that I got in a silly USTA league match.

Why not approach the game as someone who is trying to maximize their pleasure. I want to practice my serve because it is enjoyable and I will play better which is also enjoyable. Or in the case of JRs: “coach makes this game so much fun so I will go hit on the wall for four hours after practice.”

We are simply asking a bigger question: what is success? How we define success? Is success winning? Sure winning is a part of it but I like the idea that success is more about balance. Look at the success of Andre Agassi later in his career he did not become a winner because he became a warrior. He became successful because he found balance outside the court. Federer has been successful because he has been able to maintain balance between his life, his work and he clearly finds joy in the game.

[GeoffWilliams]

Seems to me like the clash of two mindsets, though I think disruptor is the wrong term. "Pusher" fits the bill better.

Disrupting can fit both types. The warrior disruptor does not let his opponent find his rhythm by not only bashing full power, but mixing up hard shots with drop shots, serving and volleying now and then.

The pusher disrupts in a different fashion: constantly giving slow shots back and trying not to make any mistake. Endlessly long points.


Warrior: I want to win, I will blow my opponent off the court.

Pusher: I do not want to lose, I will get everything back and throw junk at my opponent until he makes a mistake.

Offense versus Defense. Make points vs don't make mistakes.

All the great champions are warriors. The pushers have success at the club level.

Another right on insight. As most of the players on earth are club level players or worse, pushers win at most levels. They don't have the killer mind set, they have the don't be killed mind set. The level of skill and determination it takes to develop a winning warrior mind set is far greater and more difficult to master. An outright beginner can learn to keep the ball going softly. Pushers are not very skilled at most things, ie, volleying, serving, over heads. The only skill they collect is ground stroke consistency over and above all else. They hate playing someone who plays two feet inside the base line and who attacks all their short shots and weak serves. That type of player is their worst nightmare if done well. Why is that? This style forces them to hit harder, deeper, and to make passing shots under net pressure, or good lobs. It's essential to have a good over head against pushers, as the lob will be going up a lot.

[ghl312]

I don't think it's fair to put disruptor and pushers in the same category. While they do the similar things and create a similar problem for their opponent, the mindset is actually very different. A disruptor uses what they have to create errors and discomfort. A pusher keeps balls in play and waits for discomfort. To me the warrior mindset is not about he style of play. It's more about being relentless in imposing their game. Let's not forget that federer plays a disruptive style with the attacking mindset perfectly blended in. He uses a short slice to draw people out of position and create a weak response before attacking the open court. He also changes spins and pace on all of his strokes, including the serve, very regularly. The article originally compared the mindset to that of a hunter. How someone chooses to hunt is based on the tools they have. A disruptor with a warrior mindset is like the hunter who baits their prey and uses a snare or a trap to get the kill. All players have to work with what they have. Someone without firepower still needs a warrior mindset to reach their potential. It just won't look the same as someone with the same mindset and a forehand like del potro.

[10splayer]

This whole idea of kill or be killed in sports is an idea that just needs to go away (I highly doubt it is truly a part of our DNA, otherwise there would not be 7 billion people in this world). Here is why. If I approach every match like it is life or death and I lose I feel like death. If I win so what I just live and living is a very low standard of success. Therefore, there is automatically a smaller payoff for winning in comparison to losing, so what then is stopping me from just quitting and taking up fishing or gardening. Also, not to mention what if I get hurt in a match and limp my way to a win? Well I win but I have caused more damage to my injury but at least I am not “dead.” Well I am not dead but now I have to go through my week with a stupid limp that I got in a silly USTA league match.

Why not approach the game as someone who is trying to maximize their pleasure. I want to practice my serve because it is enjoyable and I will play better which is also enjoyable. Or in the case of JRs: “coach makes this game so much fun so I will go hit on the wall for four hours after practice.”

We are simply asking a bigger question: what is success? How we define success? Is success winning? Sure winning is a part of it but I like the idea that success is more about balance. Look at the success of Andre Agassi later in his career he did not become a winner because he became a warrior. He became successful because he found balance outside the court. Federer has been successful because he has been able to maintain balance between his life, his work and he clearly finds joy in the game.

Yeah, I tend to agree with this. What we're talking about here is being a "competitor", which, comes in many forms and style packages. That is, those that are willing to do what's necessary to win, within the confines of fair play. To say, or associate this with some sort of "aggression" in a "primal" way is just short sided. Some of the most "imposing" players i"ve ever played, or coached, where not "aggressive" in the way they played or conducted themselves. It runs the gamut.

[stotty]

Yes, there are many ways to come at the game in terms of mentality. At it's best, tennis is game of chess played with an inner calm. There are also times where you have to dig deep, survive and forget the chessboard. Tennis asks many qualities...

[GeoffWilliams]

Pleasure can be obtained mainly through practice without competitive pressure, in the aim for rhythm, fun, cooperation, enjoyment, non competition. But as soon as you start a set, or tie breakers, or play for points competitively, the loser is going to feel worse than the winner, and someone will lose at the expense of himself and his own ego/feelings about his game.

When the well trained and well equipped compete, the ill trained and ill equipped lose, however slightly so. Anyone saying that it's fun to lose regardless is either lying, or delusional.

The juniors who adopt the warrior mind set early on, and train maniacally early on, are the ones who become world class. Once a player begins to learn later on in life, it's nearly impossible to become world class in any area/shot/tactical employment. The strength of mind won't matter.

Those juniors who do, are either motivated by poverty, an extreme desire to prove themselves better than the others, an extreme desire to become wealthy/famous/popular/admired/ regaled, or an extreme desire to prove their parents wrong/and or: right. EVery victory coming at the expense of another. It's the little killers that win the most.

How many coaches have you seen that can train an older player to become world class? The thing I'm attempting, has never been done: learn to serve at my age, learn to hit a forehand at my age, to a world class level. Never been done in the history of the planet. Only chance to do it would be a site like this one helping. The odds are one in a billion against it. A will stronger than Nadal.

I've only applied that kind of will towards stringing. I have cut out strings a hundred times over that were hit with for a half hour. I've tried every new string and many techniques, some invented by myself, without cracking a frame doing so. I've inserted all kinds of materials to increase spin. All kinds of tension combinations/experiments/ra/sq. in./pro stock customization tech, etc. What has that will brought me? A slightly larger understanding of spin and power and feel and control, but not enough to substantially alter many matches. Brief stretches of utter domination over equal players, followed by longer stretches of utter collapse and unforced errors. The perfection zone does not last long with string. Nor with the mind.

[lobndropshot]

Pleasure can be obtained mainly through practice without competitive pressure, in the aim for rhythm, fun, cooperation, enjoyment, non competition. But as soon as you start a set, or tie breakers, or play for points competitively, the loser is going to feel worse than the winner, and someone will lose at the expense of himself and his own ego/feelings about his game.

Totally agree... But won't you feel worse if you approach it like your going to die? If yes then why compete in this silly game?

[GeoffWilliams]

All approach it underneath the same way. Why play? Because sometimes you win, sometimes you improve, and sometimes you have fun doing so. No one plays to lose and enjoys it.

[lobndropshot]

I have had fun while losing. But I have also lost and not enjoyed it. Not enjoying a match that you lose should be the exception to the rule. Not the rule itself.